An Open Letter to Tyler Hamilton,

We eagerly await Sunday and the airing of 60 minutes on CBS.

Your confession letter and grand jury testimony appear to have given you a new lease on life. This is good news.

We applaud you for finally telling the truth and getting out from behind the curtain that professional cycling has used to cover for its stars.

Tyler – are heart was broken during that fateful 2004 Olympics, subsequent Vuelta and the news out of Spain.

None of this in our eyes takes from Liege and Stage 16. Those were moments of pure athletic brilliance. And more importantly it overshadows your personal qualities – kindness, humility and interest in others.

For those of us that follow cycling closely have had a sneaking suspicion for years the entire generation was using bio-technology to gain an advantage. The ‘no comments’, fierce denials, claims of never failing drug tests don’t ring true to the carnage left along the way. None of the riders who finished in the top 5 of the 2005 Tour de France started in the 2006 edition. And the comments from those within the core that have found themselves outside the circle of trust later in the careers have been telling. A gentleman’s silence is no silence at all. It is cowardice.

And thank you for picking up the phone to call us a few years ago to give us tips on our training program.

MS